The Purchasing Power of the iPad Community

ByL2 ·

17 March 2012

Yesterday wasn’t just an important day for Apple and Apple users. For online retail sites whose revenue is increasingly boosted by mobile conversion, the sleek new iPad means savvy shoppers will be spending a lot more time with their tablets–and likely, a lot more money on items they find while playing with it. One such site is Fab.com. A sort of Gilt Groupe daily deal membership site for the high-end design scene, Fab and its CEO Jason Goldberg have begun to quantify the purchasing power of the tablet community — in particular, the iPad sector — since last October, when they released their first mobile app. Though only a short, five-month glimpse into the analytics, the numbers, which were released yesterday, are quite revealing:

40% of Fab’s page views originated from mobile devices.

15% of Fab’s customers browse the site with an iPad.

25% of Fab’s revenue is generated by iPad-owning customers.

40% of those who browse with an iPad app make a purchase within three months (compare that with just 15% conversion for non-iPad app users).

70% of iPad users will make a purchase within seven months of joining Fab.

By 2014, Fab iPad app users are projected to spend $700 each (more than 2x that of non-iPad users).

Recognizing how valuable the tablet shopper is to Fab’s current and future bottom lines, Goldberg plans now more than ever to prioritize updating and innovating the site’s mobile functionality. Like most luxury brands, Fab’s merchandise benefits from the iPad’s beautiful HD visuality. The ability to zoom in without losing pixel quality, the ability to easily and quickly navigate a product line with one’s finger touch, the ability to see each item from every angle, inside and out–all of these features help contribute to higher conversion. In L2’s 2012 Digital IQ Index on Mobile, it was revealed that just two-thirds of luxury brands’ websites have m-commerce capability. Based on Fab’s case study alone, we expect to see this number close to 100% very soon.